toplvl | Time to Make the Donuts

Time to Make the Donuts

THE ON-DUTY MEME

We're all used to playing our characters in special circumstances--sharing a bath, AUed into a robot, in the rain, lost in the ball pit (well that's one way to get your extra hour)...but how often do we get to actually play our characters doing their day jobs?

This meme is for just that.

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Write a starter about your character going about their day at work, wherever that may be.

If your character is a doctor, write them checking in on a patient, or having a meal in the hospital cafeteria. If they're a lawyer, write them at court. If they're a professional ghost-hunter? Yeah, that'd be a pretty neat starter too!

Be sure to include some sort of hook that allows other characters to join in the action, even if your character works alone. Maybe they brought their pile of research out to a cafe? Maybe they need help with something?

2. Respond to other characters' starters. Please tag out if you put a starter up. I know I can't enforce this, but no meme goes anywhere if people don't engage.

3. Thread. Have a good day at work, or perhaps an awful day at work.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The younger Wolf's presence (and his bullshit) is so familiar to Eskel that he doesn't even instinctively lash out when unexpectedly touched, instead throwing a hard elbow back at Lambert in return.

"It's all the usual boring shit." He says. "And I doubt any of it pays very much." He makes a general gesture to the size and condition of the town.

Lambert glances around and shrugs. "Anything is better than nothing." He looks back to the board, frowning at the usual postings. Of course, he hadn't expected anything too spectacular. It was the same problem he and Aiden kept running into.

"Any chance you've already got a room? I'll do whichever job you don't want to do if you'll share. Unless...you were trying to tell me to fuck off."

"Endregas. All yours." He hands Lambert the contract notice. He pulls down the one for the necrophages for himself. "Inn's not much to look at and if the mattress feels as good as it looks...well." He shrugs dismissively. "Guess it's better than the ground. And what kinda brother would I be if I made you sleep out in the rain?" He punches Lambert affectionately in the shoulder. "Sort out that endrega job for me and you can have half the bed."

"For half the bed? You've got a deal." He takes the contract, then returns the shoulder punch. Lambert knows when he isn't in a position to make demands, and he's lucky he ran into Eskel, because if it were Geralt or some other witcher from another school, he'd suffer camping in the rain for the sake of his pride.

Eskel's always been glad to give Lambert the things he needs and this is no exception. Especially if it means not crawling around in an endrega nest.

"Meet you back at the inn." He points to a down-at-the-heels little building off this town square. "I'll try not to get too drunk before you get back." He laughs.

"Oh, yeah, ha ha, I'm sure you will," he says, starting to feel grumpy about the overall situation. At least he's with Eskel, instead of on his own. At least he'll be able to handle most of the job with fire.

Eskel gives his shoulder a companionable bump. "And you better come back, don't make me come out in the rain and look for you, yeah?" Which is perhaps the closest a witcher can manage to please be safe, brother. "I'll buy you a drink when you get back."

Lambert rolls his eyes, but smiles like the cocky bastard he is. "I'll be fine, don't worry. And I'm holding you to that." Reluctantly, he sets off to go hunt down the endrega nest.

He watches Lambert go and then heads off in the opposite direction to look for the grave diggers who had posted the contract.

The work is messy, but Eskel is managed to trace the ghouls back to their nest and destroy it. He returns to the inn, kind enough to slip through the back so nobody but the proprietor had go see him (or smell him) and he could ask for a bath.

By the time Lambert returns, Eskel will be damp from a bath, wearing his spare shirt and trousers, and doing his best to enjoy this middling ale. There's a bandage on his forearm, but it doesn't seem to pain him much.

Meanwhile, Lambert's job takes a bit longer to accomplish. Finding the nest is easy. The ugly bastards lead him right to it themselves. Clearing it out takes some time, as it seems to be bigger than he'd expected. It's not difficult, it's just tedious. A couple of warriors try to escape and he has to chase them down. Once he's sure they're all dead, he decides to actually check for eggs, rather than wasting energy on just filling the nest with fire. There are eggs, so he's wasted time by not just frying the nest.

On top of that, the rain has really started pouring, so he has to trudge back to the crappy little inn in that. At least he'll get to sleep in a warm bed tonight.

When he makes it back, he doesn't bother trying to be polite. He barges in through the front door, locates Eskel, and marches over to plop down in the chair across from his brother with no regard to the blood and dirt covering himself. "That was bullshit."

Eskel doesn't bother to disguise his amusement as he watches Lambert throw himself down at the table.

"No shit, that's why I made you do it." He says, waving for the serving girl to bring them food. And vodka.

"Ass."

There's no heat to his namecalling. He did offer to do which ever job Eskel hadn't wanted to do. He doesn't miss the bandage, though.

"What happened to you?"

"Ghoul got a little frisky. It's nothin', be all closed up by tomorrow." He looks Lambert over. "I can ask them to change the water in the tub I was using, heat it up for you. So you're not dripping mud and endrega guts all over this perfectly...serviceable establishment."

Lambert nods, looking down at himself. "Yeah, that sounds awesome. Especially if we're cuddling up for the night~" He's teasing, of course.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, I'm gonna have to insist. Let's take the food upstairs." He'd also rather not cause any trouble, and the way people are staring, it's best for the two witchers to make themselves unseen. He waves to the serving girl again and asks her if she can have some of the maids change the water in his bath. And he insists they can take their own meals upstairs, which makes her look quite relieved to not have to perform all the usual small niceties for two guests more beast than man.

Rolling his eyes, Lambert picks up his plate and tankard while he waits for Eskel to placate the humans. He knows it's best not to cause a scene or make trouble, but he hates being treated Less Than.

Once they're up in Eskel's room, alone, he speaks. "It's not like we chose to be mutant freaks. We clear out the shit they can't handle, the least they could do is not treat us like monsters."

"I know, I know." Eskel says, in what he hopes is a soothing tone. "And the old guy that runs this place is fine, I just don't want to make things harder for him." He sits down on the floor so Lambert can sit on the bed when he wants it,back resting against a broad vertical beam. "And nobody wants endrega guts on their floor, no matter who's dripping them. Into the bath you go, brother."

With a grumble, he sets his plate and tankard on the small table, then starts to strip his armor off. Everything gets piled on the floor beside the tub, so he can wash it later. Then he steps into the tub and sinks down with a content sigh. The water is fresh and warm, soothing. His head thumps back against the rim.

"Thanks."

"It's nothin'." Eskel says. "Like you said, I'm gonna have to sleep with you, so I had to get you a bath." He jokes, offering Lambert his crooked smile. He proceeds to pick a thick slice of brown bread from his plate and shred it with his fingers; the crust is thick and hard and it's easier to chew smaller chunks on the side that doesn't have damaged teeth and gums where the blade of the knife had caught in his mouth. The witch's intervention had saved his life, but there were limits to what she could have managed. He supposed an injury that only occasionally pained him was better than one that killed him outright. He watched Lambert idly.

"What have you been up to? Been riding around with your friend the Cat?" He winks. What are brothers for if not to tease you about your love life?

Lambert picks up the soap after a while and lathers himself up, making sure to get behind his ears and in all the little places he doesn't often have time to bother with. He's safe, Eskel's sitting right there, so he takes advantage of the bath.

"Yeah, 'til this morning, actually." His face gets a tiny bit pink, a goofy smile stretching his lips, and he keeps his eyes on his task of scrubbing up good. "He wanted to spend the whole year together, at least until I had to go back to Kaer Morhen, but contracts are running thin. Not enough for two witchers, unless we wanted to stick to camping and hunting. So I told him I'd try and meet him again in the harvest season before I head up the mountains."

Eskel grins at him.

"You gonna try to bring him north this year?" He asks, carefully. He's got mixed feelings about encouraging Lambert but he's long since abandoned the idea he could talk the younger witcher out of it. So he might as well be in Lambert's corner, if the other witchers push back. Geralt could go either way on the issue, but Eskel was sure Vesemir would lose his entire shit.

Lambert sighs and lets himself sink further under the water, trying to submerge himself.

"Maybe. If he wants to." He definitely wants to. The fact that Vesemir's head will explode is merely a bonus. If Aiden agrees, it means he'll get to spend a couple of months with his Cat in a safe place, where they don't have to worry about being tossed out of an inn or watching their backs when they camp. They won't have to worry about making enough coin.

"You gonna help me convince the old man to let him in?"

"I could. I'd want to meet him first. I trust your judgment but I wouldn't want to butt heads with the old man without having something to show for it. Vesemir can't accuse you have having wrapped me around your little finger when we were younger if I like him personally." He smiles ruefully. He'd do anything for either of his brothers, he'd fight and die for them, with them, he'd ride to the ends of the earth to find them and bring them home. But he'd always felt like he had to look out for Lambert, the sensitive and hot-headed novice more than half a century younger than himself.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." With a sigh, he stands up and lets the water cascade off of him, then grabs a towel to dry off as he steps out. "He isn't like the other Cats, though. I think you'd like him."

"He makes you happy, that makes me like him a lot already." Eskel says, watching Lambert with half-closed eyes. "I'm glad you have each other, I think."

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